Over and over again, I'm reading about how youth are leaving the church as soon as they turn 18. I see study after study highlighting how Christian conservative values are turning off millennials who prefer social justice to culture wars.

I guess I'm not the only one who's noticed it. I came across an op-ed in CNN by Daniel Darling, vice president of communications for the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, that demanded my attention. The headline? "Millennials and the False 'Gospel of Nice.'"

In it, Darling points out the same trends I've been seeing during my
duties as news editor for Charisma magazine. It seems some in the younger generation are willing to water down the truth in God's Word even as they stay busy fulfilling His command to feed the hungry. It seems some in the younger generation would rather allow a gay worship leader to take his place on the platform than stand for traditional marriage in the public square. Oh, and when more mature believers point back to what the Bible says about morality, they are labeled religious.

I believe in social justice. I believe we need to feed the hungry, clothe the poor and care for the widows and orphans. This is part of the pure, undefiled religion that James notes in his
epistle (James 1:27). I don't think we have to choose between social justice and the culture wars to be nice Christians. And I think any who suggest we do are propagating what Darling labels the "false gospel of nice."

Darling, for one, is not buying the hype around the lost generation or betting the "false gospel of nice" will win in the end. He doesn't believe a conservative Christianity that stands against gay marriage or abortion is the problem. I don't either. read more